Of Shadow-Puppets and Steambending
by neuxue
Summary: Aang tries to teach the others how to make shadow-puppets. When this doesn't work, Zuko and Katara experiment with steamending. Written for Day 29 of Zutara Month 2012: Steam.


"And this one looks like a badger-mole!" Aang says excitedly, weaving his hands together in front of the light from the window to cast a large shadow on the opposite wall.

"Are you kidding me Twinkletoes? That doesn't look anything like a badger-mole!"

"Yes it does! See, there's its head, and there…oh. Right. Ha, ha, Toph, very funny." Aang crosses his arms and looks at her indignantly.

Toph smirks. "Whatever. I'm sure these shadow-puppets are great, but if it's all the same to you I think I'll just go throw some rocks around." She turns and walks out the door, and Aang jumps up to follow.

"Wait! Toph, wait up! Hey, I know, we could use earthbending to make the animals! Then you could see them with your feet!" He runs after her, and Katara meets Zuko's eyes, laughing.

For the past hour or so, Aang has been trying to teach them to make what he calls 'shadow-puppets', with limited success. Supposedly it's like bending, but Katara can't think of any waterbending moves she knows that require twisting her hands and arms into impossible knots.

"Even fire-dragons are more fun to make than those shadow-sparrowkeets," says Zuko, clearly thinking along the same lines.

"Fire-dragons? You mean like the ones they perform at festivals?" asks Katara excitedly.

Zuko nods.

"You know how to make one?" She tries to sound offhand, but a note of admiration creeps into her voice nonetheless.

"Yeah, one of my firebending teachers made me learn. Supposedly it's good for precision."

"Can you show me?"

"What, here?" he looks warily around the room. "I guess if no one's particularly fond of the panelling…"

Katara opens her waterskin and coats her hands in water gloves. "I'll put out any fires you start," she says. "And besides, a firebending master shouldn't have any problems with precision." She smirks, and Zuko rolls his eyes, but brings a ball of fire to his hands.

With slow, careful movements he reaches into the ball of fire and pulls out a ribbon of flame, then continues reaching and pulling, extending the fire and shaping it as he goes, until Katara finds herself face to face with a dragon of fire, that then turns its head and loops around the room.

Impressed, but not wanting to be outdone, Katara tries to copy his movements, with a ball of water in her hands. She draws it out as though preparing a water-whip, or the octopus tentacles Aang is so fond of, and with careful movements of her fingers, shapes the ribbon of water into something more or less resembling a giant sea-serpent.

Zuko's eyes widen as she sends the Unagi flying after his fire-dragon, and only a quick spin of his arms prevents the water from slicing through it.

"What is that?"

"Don't you remember the Unagi?" she asks, laughing, driving the sea-creature after his dragon once more.

The Unagi and the dragon chase each other around the room, until Zuko reverses the dragon's direction and it snaps at the Unagi's tail, a jet of steam hissing out after it, swirling away in the wind left behind by the dragon. The trail of steam almost looks like a dragon itself, Katara thinks. Or at least as much like a dragon as Aang's shadows looked like birds or badger-moles.

So she flicks the Unagi's tail at the fire-dragon, and where fire and water meet, steam escapes again. She tries to direct it by swirling the Unagi around it, causing it to spiral out into the air.

"What are you doing, steambending?" Zuko asks, tossing a fireblast at her Unagi.

"Hey, no fair!" She says as the Unagi hisses out of existence and steam billows out into the room. She makes a halfhearted attempt to shape it, and Zuko does the same with the fading remnants of his dragon.

"Maybe if we try it smaller?" Zuko suggests, holding out his hand with a tiny flame resting in his palm.

Katara pushes her hair back as she steps forward, covering one of her hands with water. The steam has dampened the air, causing her hair to stick to her face. She can't help but notice that it has also made Zuko's shirt cling to his muscled chest and arms.

They slowly bring their hands together, but even as steam hisses out, a strange jolt runs through her that she thinks has very little to do with the fire, and she forgets to try bending the steam. Zuko seems to have forgotten as well, because nothing whatsoever happens, and it fades into the air.

"Sorry, I uh…wasn't quite ready. Try again?" Katara says, this time holding out both hands covered in water.

He raises his hands, full of fire, pressing them against hers and intertwining their fingers. As fire and water turn to steam, he unlaces their fingers, but doesn't drop his hands away as she half-expects. Instead, he runs them up her arms, across her shoulders, to cup her face and slide his fingers gently through her hair. Hardly daring to breathe, she takes a step forward, closing the distance between them.

Without thinking, she brushes her fingers across his chest, where his hard muscles are outlined against the damp fabric of his shirt, and around to his back, drawing him towards her.

When his lips meet hers, she thinks for a moment that this must be at least as efficient a way of creating steam as throwing water at fire. And then she stops thinking as the kiss deepens and his hands slide down to her hips, pulling her closer.

And then they both spring apart as they hear Aang's voice from outside the open window.

"Hey! You figured out the 'two lovers' shadow-puppet! That one's supposed to be really hard."

"Uh, Twinkletoes," comes Toph's voice, "I don't think that's a shadow…"


End file.
